I'm a descendant of Tziril Minah first husband Aaron Leibe Haneles (by his
previous wife). I'm interested in any descendents of Haneles or the Botwiniks.

Haneles was also variously spelled as Khaneles or Ganeles and were concentrated
in the Minsk area.

Thanks
Michael

Hi Eilat,
I was very excited to find your site. My grandmother's maiden name was
Axelrod/Axelroad. I have evidence that her grandfather Victor/Vigtor
Axelrod/Axelrood and grandmother Dubbie/Doba Betwinik lived in Minsk. Her
father Morris was born in Vilnius in 1872/4, and he had 8 siblings: Nathan,
Hyman, Charlie, Israel, George, Sam, Rachel and Ann. Morris immigrated to
the US in 1888, and I know that Israel was here as early as 1904.

Any additional info you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for an informative site!

Jennifer Martin
San Francisco

Recently I received the first file containing Minsk Birth records. These
records are one of the first files that will be available to those researchers
making a donation to this project. The file has over 1000 family names
and listings for people born in the 1880's in Minsk (town, uyezd and gubernia
What an exciting find and addition to BelarusSig researchers! I look
forward to receiving more files as soon as enough funds are accumulated.

Help fund these files. Read the information below and please make a donation
on to help all Minsk / Belarus researchers.

Thanks and Good Luck with your research.

Hope Gordon

These records are primarily for Minsk City, but some of
them also include a few shtetls in Minsk District.

Some of the records included are:
1. birth records 1866 Zaslsavye
2. death records 1867 (some months) Minsk
3. birth records 1879-1900 and 1906 and 1917 Minsk
4. birth records 1890 (incomplete) Rakov
5, marriage records 1907 Ostroshitskiy Gorodok
6. death records 1908 Kaminsk
7. marriage records 1914 Minsk
8. In addition to these metrical records, tax records, conscription
lists, and resident lists are also available.

If you want to make sure these records are translated and made available
for your personal research, please make a generous donation to the Minsk
Gubernia: Revision Lists and Metrical Records Project by going to:

http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/v_projectslist.asp?project_cat=1

Scroll down the page till you find the project.

Thanks for all your support!

To post to the Belarus SIG discussion group, send your message to:
<belarus@lyris.jewishgen.org>
Remember to send your message in PLAIN TEXT and sign
with your full name and location

Belarus SIG Webpage: <http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus>
Online Newsletter: <http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/newsletter/bnl_index.htm>
***************************************************
****************************************************************
Join us at the
31st IAJGS International Conference
on Jewish Genealogy
"A Capital Conference"
Washington, DC USA
http://www.DC2011.org
August 14-19, 2011 Grand Hyatt Washington

Much to our surprise, Picture #1 on your Viazin website is definitely
of my grandparents, Moshe and Gittel Rieur. Interestingly, the
picture has been identified by my first cousin as one taken by him in
Brooklyn circa 1940. The couple had emigrated from Viazin in 1922.
So I wonder how their photo came to your website. I cannot identify
any of the other photographs and I think you may have comingled a
number of families. It would help if the i.d.’s were in English.

I can clarify the confusion about a number of the names on your
website. My family name was spelled ???? and was pronounced ree- er.
My Uncle Jacques (Jacov), who was the first of the family to leave
Viazin, spent time in France on his way to the U.S. and took the
spelling Rieur. According to my uncle, his great grandfather Israel
Rieur (my great-great grandfather) was originally from Perpignon,
France. Allegedly, he went to Russia with Napoleon’s army. Circa,
1812 in defeat and retreat, Israel settled in the village of Rakov
http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/rakov/rakov.html.

I can identify the individuals listed with the Ellis Is. information,
all of whom adopted the spelling RIEUR when arriving in United States.
They identified Jacov Rieur (Rier, Rivar) who arrived circa 1910 as
their sponsor..

Not mentioned on your website were two other siblings who left Viazin
-Miriam, who probably was already married to Z. Bleecker, and Sarah.
They arrived in the U. S. at different times. I’m not sure of Miriam’s
date of arrival, but believe that Sarah arrived in 1913 -1914. Two
siblings, not mentioned on your website, Hirshel Rier, (his wife
Taubel and three children) and Shaina Basha Rier (Her husband Aaron
Ginsberg and, I believe, two children) perished in the holocaust.
Miraculously, a son survived the war and ultimately emigrated to
Israel in the 1950s or 1960s.

Ellis Island information;

This is my uncle Zachary who first came to the U.S. and then emigrated
to Israel in the 1920s where he married, settled in a moshav, raised a
family and died. His children, grandchildren and great grandchildren
are Israelis.
First Name: Zachari
Last Name: Rier
Ethnicity: Russia, Hebrew
Last Place of Residence: Wiazn, Russia
Date of Arrival: January 03, 1912
Age at Arrival: 17y Gender: M Marital Status: S
Ship of Travel: Vaderland
Port of Departure: Antwerp
Manifest Line Number: 0027
going to brother; Jacob Rier in New York
--------------------

My Aunt, Minnie Rieur Schrager
First Name: Minda
Last Name: Ryjer
Ethnicity: Hebrew
Last Place of Residence: Wiazyn, Poland
Date of Arrival: September 18, 1920
Age at Arrival: 19y Gender: F Marital Status: S
Ship of Travel: Susquehanna
Port of Departure: Danzig
Manifest Line Number: 0014

My father, Charles Isaac Rieur
First Name: Chaim
Last Name: Ryjer
Ethnicity: Hebrew
Last Place of Residence: Wiazyn, Poland
Date of Arrival: September 18, 1920
Age at Arrival: 15y Gender: M Marital Status: S
Ship of Travel: Susquehanna
Port of Departure: Danzig
Manifest Line Number: 0016

My father’s first cousin who took the name Robert Rieur
First Name: Chaim
Last Name: Ryjer
Ethnicity: Hebrew
Last Place of Residence: Wiazyn, Poland
Date of Arrival: September 18, 1920
Age at Arrival: 10y Gender: M Marital Status: S
Ship of Travel: Susquehanna
Port of Departure: Danzig
Manifest Line Number: 0015
All going to brother; Zachar Ryjer on 326 Hard Street in Brooklin

This is probably my grandfather whose name was actually Moshe Israel
who is shown in picture #1
First Name: Srul
Last Name: Ryer
Ethnicity: Pinsk, Hebrew
Last Place of Residence: Wiazyn, Pinsk Region, Russia
Date of Arrival: September 01, 1922
Age at Arrival: 66y Gender: M Marital Status: M
Ship of Travel: Berengaria
Port of Departure: Cherbourg
Manifest Line Number: 0016
------------------

This is probably my grandmother Gittel who is shown in picture #1
First Name: Gita
Last Name: Ryer
Ethnicity: Pinsk, Hebrew
Last Place of Residence: Wiazyn, Pinsk Region, Russia
Date of Arrival: September 01, 1922
Age at Arrival: 64y Gender: F Marital Status: M
Ship of Travel: Berengaria
Port of Departure: Cherbourg
Manifest Line Number: 0017 Both going to son ; Jacob Rivar on 1026
Hard street in Brooklin

Mina Rieur Weiner

I am researching my family from Rakov, in present-day Belarus. I
visited Rakov, near Minsk, this past spring -- and we said kaddish on
the site of the synagogue that was buried by the Nazis with much of
the Jewish population inside. I just came upon this passage in the
Rakov Yizkor book and it raises a number of questions:

"We reached the "Shul-Hoif", and were jolted by the shock. Here stood
the synagogues -- the "Old" and the "New". Next to these synagogues
stood the "Hasidishe Shtible" [a small synagogue, favored by Hassidic
Jews]. And opposite the "Shtible" stood the "Kalte Shul".

So that makes 4 synagogues: the Old, the New, the Hasidishe Shtible,
and the Kalte Shul. Elsewhere I have seen a reference to the Great
Synagogue of Rakov. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has
knowledge of the synagogues in Rakov -- and who could tell me which
one was burned by the Nazis with the Jewish population inside.

Thank you -- and Shana Tova to all.
David Laskin, Seattle, WA

From: Sheldon Clare <clare15905@gmail.com>

I have come across the "Life and Holocaust of Olshan" book on the internet. Several years ago, I helped to translate the book from Yiddish to English. I believe that one of the authors, Yakov Kozlovsky was related to my mother Dora (Dina) Clare. I had met him in Israel in 1975.
My mother was born in Olshan in 1899. Her maiden name was Grodzienski( Grodziencziek?). Her parents were Shmuel and Rivka (Kaminski). The Kaminski family came from a neighboring town of Oshmiyani(Oshmana). My grandfather died about 1917 and is believed to be buried in Rakov. In 1923, my mother and grandmother came to the US. Rivka died in 1925 and is buried in Brooklyn, NY. All of my mother;s siblings arrived in the US before she came and none of the family were in the Holocaust. Mother died in 1990 and is buried in Queens, NY.
This June, I plan to travel to Lithuania on a genealogy tour which will include visiting my father's shtetl of Anysckiai and hopefully, I will also be able to go to Olshan.
I now live in Tucson, Arizona where I moved after retiring fro the University of Pittsburgh where I taught chemistry. In Tucson, there is a Jewish genealogy group which I attend and I also am involved in running a Yiddish class. I grew up in The Bronx, NY where most of my Olshan family resided.

Sheldon Clare, Ph.D
Tucson, AZ 85715